Bank Feeds
Accounting integrations
Plan accounting integrations around source records, posting rules and reconciliation. Check ecommerce, POS and payroll transfers before automating them.
An accounting integration works when it moves transactions into the ledger with enough detail to explain, check and correct them. A successful transfer message does not prove sales, refunds, fees or payroll amounts reached the right accounts. Decide which system owns each record, what should be posted, and how the result will be reconciled.
Map the transaction before choosing a connection
For each workflow, trace a real transaction from source record to accounting entry and, where money moves, to the bank statement. Record the source system, export trigger, destination account, tax-code decision, reference carried across, and who owns exceptions. Use the same map to list records that must stay available outside the ledger, such as order details or payroll records.
Choose the level of detail deliberately. An order-level import can make individual sales easier to trace but may create many entries. A daily summary can be easier to review if its components and source report remain accessible. Neither makes a net bank deposit a complete sales record: it may include refunds, processing fees or transactions from another day.
| Connection | Accounting question to answer | Useful control |
|---|---|---|
| Ecommerce and payment provider | How do orders, refunds, fees and payouts relate? | Reconcile the provider balance and each payout to the bank. |
| Point of sale (POS) | Which shift or trading-day totals were posted? | Compare sales, refunds, tenders and fees with the POS close. |
| Payroll | Does the journal agree with the approved pay run? | Compare gross pay, deductions, liabilities and net pay before posting. |
| Other operational systems | Did every expected event arrive once? | Monitor missing, rejected and repeated transfers. |
Set boundaries between systems
Keep the operational system responsible for operational facts: the order, refund, shift close or approved pay run. Let the accounting system hold the approved financial entry. Record a stable source reference in the ledger where the software permits it. If an integration changes a posted entry, require a visible correction path, not an unexplained overwrite.
Agree the accounting basis and posting dates with the finance owner. Sale, settlement and bank dates can differ. That may be normal, but it should appear as an explainable balance awaiting settlement. Have an accountant approve account mapping and GST treatment for the business's transactions; a connector's default code is only a configuration choice.
Australian businesses must keep records of income, sales, expenses, bank activity and relevant GST transactions. Digital records must remain accessible and protected. An integration should make those records easier to retrieve, not leave the ledger as the only surviving view of a transaction.
Preserve evidence across the hand-off
Treat operational reports and accounting entries as different evidence. Shopify's Payments activity report shows balance activity, including gross activity, fees and payouts, but Shopify says it is not a statement of revenue for accounting purposes; sales activity can have different timing or totals.
Keep the source report available for review and accountant hand-off, rather than relying on a ledger total alone. Shopify's report can be exported to PDF for record keeping, but it covers Shopify Payments balance activity and excludes third-party payment processors and payment methods.
Retain records that explain the posting
Australian businesses must keep records of transactions relating to tax, superannuation and registrations. These may include end-of-year creditor and debtor lists, asset or stock expense records, fuel tax credit records where claimed, and employee and contractor records, plus income, sales, expenses, bank and GST records.
Records must be in English, or able to be translated easily into English. This matters when choosing which system retains source detail: the integration should not make relevant records inaccessible or leave the business unable to explain an entry from its supporting transaction records.
Test the difficult cases
Before enabling automatic posting, test a small set of representative transactions: an ordinary sale, partial refund, fee, delayed payout, duplicate export and correction after a period closes. For payroll, include a corrected pay run and an amount still payable after the run. These are proposed test cases, not product results.
For every case, compare the source report with the proposed journal. Check that debits and credits balance, references survive, and the bank movement can be matched without creating a second sale or expense. Also check what happens if the connection fails halfway through: does it retry the same item safely, mark it failed, or leave an uncertain status for review?
Operate the connection after launch
Give each integration an owner, a review schedule and an exception queue. Review technical failures and financial differences. A green connection status cannot reveal a sale posted to the wrong account; a balanced journal cannot prove every source transaction arrived. Periodically compare counts and totals at both ends, then reconcile the relevant clearing accounts and bank deposits.
Document the mapping version, approval and correction history. When a product, payment method, account or tax code changes, inspect the first affected imports. If a connector cannot expose source references, exceptions or a reliable export, assess the cost of manual controls before relying on it.
Keep digital records accessible and protected
The Australian Taxation Office recommends digital record keeping where possible. Businesses do not generally need to keep paper copies as well, unless a particular law or rule requires them; electronic images of paper records must be true, clear reproductions and follow record-keeping rules.
Protect records against change or damage, back up digital records, and retain access to the devices, passwords and information being processed, entered and sent. Where possible, use secure off-site storage, which may include cloud storage. The ATO's free record-keeping evaluation tool can help a business check which records it needs and how well it is keeping them.
Australian Record-Keeping Requirements
- ATO record-keeping recommendation
- Digital record keeping is preferred
- Need for paper copies
- Not generally required unless law or rule states otherwise
- Electronic image requirements
- Must be true, clear reproductions
- ATO free tool for evaluation
- Record-keeping evaluation tool available
In this guide
- Connecting ecommerce settlements to bookkeepingReconcile ecommerce payments, refunds, fees and payouts without treating a net bank deposit as the whole sales record.
- Mapping POS totals without losing refunds and feesMap POS sales, refunds, tenders and provider fees to the ledger, then reconcile each close with settlements and bank deposits.
- Checking payroll journal importsCheck payroll journals against approved pay runs, payment files and liabilities, and catch missing or duplicate imports before close.
- Monitoring errors between accounting and operational systemsFind missing, rejected, duplicate and misposted integration entries with source references, total checks and a controlled correction path.
